Is DD not ready for TT?

[Moi]

My DD (2 1/2 years old) has been interested in sitting on her potty for a while now but never did anything in it. Then over a few days she did some wees and one poo in there. I also found out that at CC there are a lot of children in her group TT and my DD is very interested in sitting on their little toilet like the other children (although she is petrified of normal toilets and I can't get her to sit on our home one at all). So CC suggested I start bringing DD in underwear, rather than nappies. I bought underwear with my DD and she was very excited about wearing undies and she loves wearing them. She will sit on her potty, often without me even asking. But she has stopped doing anything in her potty at all. At the same time she doesn't have many accidents at all either. Instead she goes during nap and sleep time when I have her in nappies. So I'm wondering if that means she's not really ready? I'm very confused. Any advice?

[Rivlas]

Keep doing what you are doing and then one day the penny will drop. A smartie, banana chip etc is also a good way to encourage (read bribe) her when she has done something.

Also buy a seat that sits under the toilet seat, this is great for training as it reduces the size of the toilet. They feel secure, not like they are going to fall in

[Mad Scientist]

Sounds like she's going really well! Keep it up for a bit longer. Maybe ask the CC staff how she's going there and what they think?

[Moi]

Rivlas - We do have a seat to make the toilet seat smaller, but she is petrified to sit on there still, even with the seat on. So I'm not sure how I will get her onto the toilet. But right now I'm just waiting till she uses her potty again before I even think about getting her on the toilet.

Mad Scientist - I've been talking to CC and they say she loves sitting on their toilet like the other kids there, but waits till she's got her nappy on during nap time to do anything.

I will keep doing what we're doing and hopefully she'll go back to using the potty rather than her nappies. Thanks.

[Leigh26]

Your DD sounds like my 2 1/2 year old, very interested in sitting on the potty, loves wearing pants but is saving her wees and poos for sleep time when the nappy is on. I'm hoping if I keep encouraging her that she will eventually want to use the potty or toilet rather then holding it until her nappy is on. My DD will wear pants all morning while at home without any accidents but then does it in her nappy during her arvo nap, even though we've put her on the toilet numerous times in the morning.

[Fleur]

I think that if she's got enough control to wait and use her nappies, then I would keep doing what you're doing. If she's not having accidents I can't see a need to put her back in nappies full time?

[~*Niadalla*~]

I think she sounds more than ready.... maybe try taking the nappies away all together? This is what we did with DS. No nappies at all once we finally decided to TT. He had a few very small accidents but was whizz trained within hours and #2's were totally under control within 2 weeks. We did not use one single nappy in that time at all.
She sounds very switched on to be holding it all in until she has a nappy on. Maybe if she knows she won't have access to nappies she will use the potty more?
Good luck

[Mad Scientist]

I think she sounds more than ready.... maybe try taking the nappies away all together? This is what we did with DS. No nappies at all once we finally decided to TT. He had a few very small accidents but was whizz trained within hours and #2's were totally under control within 2 weeks. We did not use one single nappy in that time at all.
She sounds very switched on to be holding it all in until she has a nappy on. Maybe if she knows she won't have access to nappies she will use the potty more?
Good luck

This might be worth a try if you can handle the potential mess in the beginning. Are you still using nappies or are you using pull ups? I would pop her on the toilet before nap and explain that she's a big girl now and doesn't need nappies during the day. Explain what will happen if she doesn't do a wee/poo before bed ie she'll get alllllllll wet or her bed/cot will get alllllllll wet eg. Then maybe just see how it goes. It will probably be tough in the beginning. Remember though that it's awesome that she's not having accidents. That's a huge step so there's no hurry to get her out of naptime nappies if you are happy with her still using nappies. You and her are doing a fantastic job x

[Arimeh]

This sounds like my DD1 - she's nearly 2 years, 9 months.

I haven't done anything bout it though, sometimes she asks for undies and then promptly wees in them. She refuses to get on the toilet. She will sit on the potty (if she wants to, not if I ask) and will say she has done a wee, but there is nothing in it after she gets up. Then she wants her nappy changed.

Her brother trained within a day at 3 years, 2 months. I'm not going to do anything until the weather starts warming up again because I hate (and I mean HATE) cleaning up pee and poo. Too hard with this many kids so I have to make sure the kids are really really realllly ready to train before trying without a nappy.. LOL

[Moi]

Niadalla - Did your DS make any messes in bed? I'm just worried about the mess she might make in bed if I take away her nappies altogether. It would require regularly washing and replacing her sheets.

Mad Scientist - We do use nappies for sleeps (mostly MCN). Are pull ups better?

Well I'm confused after yesterday. DD went to CC and when I picked her up she had different clothes on, which means she did have an accident, which does happen from time to time but is rare. Anyway, I talked to a staff member who said DD had had many accidents that day, which really surprised me! The staff member said she'd had so many accidents in fact that they'd run out of underpants for her (I put 6 in her bag each day plus the one she wears to CC means 7 undies). Anyway, when I got home I opened her bag to find many clean undies still??! I also found a lot of wet clothes, but they weren't all hers?! So now I don't know if they were putting some other child's clothes on my DD?? Or accidentally put that child's clothes in my DD's bag. Either way it's bizarre. My DD goes back to CC tomorrow, so I'll ask then. Today as usual she wants her undies on and has had no accidents so far and only done wees and poos in her nappy. So I can't imagine her suddenly having heaps of accidents yesterday at CC?

[Mad Scientist]

Woah! No wonder you're confused! As for pull ups, im not sure how different they'd be compared to mcn's. They have a layer that stops the wee from being drawn away immediately so they know theyre wet. Not sure if they would help? If you really want to stop the waiting, I'd go with undies at nap time and cop the dirty sheets. I don't think it will take long for her to work out that it's no fun sleeping in a wet bed and she's better off going to the potty beforehand. They are smart little cookies. Hope you sort out what happened at CC!

[Moi]

Well.. found out CC did make a mistake and DD only had ONE accident that day and all the other clothes were some other child's clothes that they gave me by mistake. I washed them anyway, in case it was my DD that had soiled them. LOL Ah well.. at least that's cleared up!

And today we've had heaps of success!!! She used the small toilet at CC! No accidents. And came home and used her potty TWICE for wees!!!!!!!!

Let's hope this continues.

[Mad Scientist]

Oh that's great that was cleared up and it wasn't your DD. She sounds like she's doing wonderfully. It's great because it's reassuring for you you're doing a great job xx

[Moi]

Thanks all. She is doing two to three wees a day in her potty. And this morning DD even used our toilet for the first time for wees.

I still have her in nappies for sleeps and that's when she does her poos, so I'm probably going to have to remove the nappy for naps and deal with the mess.

[~*Niadalla*~]

Sorry I didn't reply eariler!!
We didn't have too many messy nights with DS. The first night he nearly wet the bed, and hopped out just in time to wet the floor... this showed me just how ready he was!! Of course over the period of the 2 weeks, he did do some poos in his jocks, but he was quite upset by it and immediately ran to the loo.
I think you need to be prepared for the messes. It's not a fun thing to do, but I think kids learn more from their 'mistakes' and accidents than they do by not making them at all

She sounds like she's doing so well!!! That's wonderful! What a clever little girl! Good luck with it all. Hopefully she's so switched on with it all that she barely makes any messes and you will be a super lucky Mum!!